


one step to the side

by chadsuke



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-12 07:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15990863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chadsuke/pseuds/chadsuke
Summary: Soren and Claudia tell each other everything - and their Dad doesn't know what's hit him.





	1. Chapter 1

Sometimes Soren gets lost in the castle. It’s a thing. That happens. No big deal, right? It’s a huge place and there’s lots of secret passages and it’s not like he’s banned from going anywhere, not now that King Harrow is dead. He’s allowed to go pretty much anywhere.

Kinda trippy, honestly.

Today, somehow, he manages to not get lost – but that’s because he knows exactly where he’s going. To feed Gren.

Gren’s an okay guy, even if he’s following General Amaya and she doesn’t really know what she’s doing (helLO? He and Claudia can lead a mission to find the princes just fine? Have a little faith, geeze!), so Soren doesn’t really mind feeding him porridge while he’s chained up against the wall. “You know,” Gren says, after a swallow. “I wouldn’t mind some of that Xadian fruit.”

Some of the what? Soren stares at him. “Xadian fruit?”

Gren nods. “Yeah. Your father got some for the other prisoner.”

The other…? Oh, that’s right! The Moonshadow Elf! Pleased at his remembering, Soren shrugs. “Dunno anything about that,” he says. “This is what I was ordered to give you.”

“Rats,” Gren says, but he eats it all anyway.

It’s when Soren is done, and he has to go upstairs and return the empty bowl to the kitchen, that he… hm. Maybe he just gets a little _lost._

Or that’s gonna be the excuse he uses if someone catches him, at least, and he’s pretty sure they’ll buy it.

He tiptoes down to where the elf is being kept and peeks in. He’s chained to the wall, and looks… tired. Maybe hasn’t eaten the past few days. And his arm is turning _purple._ (Well. Purplier. It was already purple to begin with.

“You look kinda awful,” Soren says, stepping forward and squatting down in front of him. “What’s up with your arm?”

The elf looks up at him, completely dead-eyed. “I am dead,” he says, and uh, okay.

“If you… say so,” Soren says, and then he shrugs and he leaves.

He can’t quite get him out of his mind, though.

* * *

Dad orders him to do something awful, something real awful, and Soren feels sick to his stomach. He _likes_ Callum and Ezran – okay, maybe they’re idiots, but they’re like… they’re not the enemy. And he feels like even if Ezran is gonna make weak decisions, Dad can help him or something. Or Soren can, or Claudia, or just… something. Anything.

“Did… Dad say anything strange to you?” Claudia asks, and Dad’s warning to keep this to himself flashes across his mind, but Soren doesn’t _want_ to bear this burden. Claudia’s smart – or smarter than him, at least – and she’s got all her fancy magic stuff, so maybe she can figure something else out.

“Yeah,” he says, looking up at his younger sister from his spot on the bench. “He did.”

And he tells her everything.

She tells him everything, too, and like, that’s seriously messed up and weird and-

“So they’re… working with this elf to try to bring the Dragon Egg _back?”_

Claudia nods, disbelief written all over her face. “Right! Prince Ezran said he wanted to give it back to its _Mom._ ”

Soren considers this. He does miss his Mom, and she passed years ago. He’s sure the baby dragon misses its mom, too, but like, still! Still!

“What do we do, Claudia?” he asks. “The princes are crazy cause we all know the elves are…” Soren searches for words and comes up blank.

“Crazy, bloodthirsty monsters?” Claudia suggest, and Soren nods.

“Yeah! Yeah, that. But Dad wants us to like- like _kill_ them, and I’m pretty sure that’s like… evil. So we’re stuck between crazy and evil.” That’s not a good thing. He thinks if he HAS to choose, he’ll go for crazy, because he really doesn’t want to kill them, but like… still. Still!

Claudia frowns, tapping her chin and thinking. “We’ve got like… two hours before we need to leave,” she says. “I’ll see if I can figure something out.”

“Okay,” he says, and he’s so very relieved to have that off his chest because he does NOT do well with decision-making. “You can do it.”

* * *

About an hour and fifteen minutes later, Claudia grabs him by the cape and hauls him into a hallway. (Haha. Hauls. Hallway. Get it.) “I think Dad’s pure evil now,” she says, and she holds up a small sack. “Look what I found.”

He takes it, opens it up, and peers inside. Coins? What- Wait. He reaches in and pulls out a coin. It’s not like… a money coin. It’s a coin and there’s a frightened, terrified elf stuck inside it, staring at him with wide eyes and oh my god that was one of the assassins, wasn’t it- “Holy-“ he says, and he drops it and Claudia catches it.

“There’s four of them in there,” she says, slipping the coin back into the pouch and taking it back. “I think he’s gonna do our last prisoner next. We’re breaking him out and we’re getting out of here.”

Soren’s eyes are wide. This is- This is beyond anything he ever thought of. Orders to kill princes, dragon eggs, saving elves… It’s like it’s opposite day! No, wait, it’s been more than one day – opposite _week!_ This is _crazy!_

But the idea of another elf being trapped in a coin like that… or having to kill those two idiot princes… No, Soren doesn’t like the thought of that.

“Okay,” he says.

Claudia has a key, because of course she does – Soren’s learned to not question it – and they free Gren first. “You’re gonna help us,” she says. “We’re breaking out the elf and going after the princes. Our dad’s _crazy._ ”

Soren nods vehemently next to her. “He wants me, to- to-“ His face twists, and Gren either completely understands or figures he has nothing to lose, so he shrugs.

“Works for me,” he says, and thank god because Soren didn’t want to have to knock him out and hang him right back up.

They head around the corner, straight for the prisoner’s cell, and Claudia immediately starts to unlock his chains. He lifts his head up and stares in them in utter confusion. “What…?”

“This is a rescue mission,” Soren tells him, because it is! “We’re getting you out of here and getting that egg back and ending this war.”

He meets the elf’s eyes, and he narrows them. “You’re a human. How do you expect me to trust you?”

Soren shrugs. “I don’t. Good thing you’re dead anyway, right?”

A very, very small smile curls at his lips. “I suppose that’s true.”

The elf is weak, so weak he can barely stand, and both Soren and Gren throw arms over their shoulders and walk him through a passage that Claudia… somehow… knows about. He grits his teeth in pain when Soren touches his more-purple-arm, but doesn’t say a word or cry out, which is honestly kind of impressive.

Claudia has cloaks waiting for both Gren and the elf, and she turns to Gren. “Keep following this passage east,” she says. “There’s an opening at the very end, outside the town – we’ll meet you there.”

“Right,” says Gren, and he takes all of the elf’s weight upon himself and heads off.

“Come on,” says Claudia. “Now we’ve got to go see Dad.”

* * *

He sends them off with well wishes, barely paying attention to their nervous smiles and nervous laughter, and Soren’s genuinely not stupid so he kind of has to wonder at that. Does he just… expect that they’ll be nervous and stuff because of what he told them to do? Does he not care? Is Dad really evil?

It’s probably a yes to that last one.

Claudia leads the way on her horse through the town, and once they hit the outskirts, banks sharply right – about a mile from the town is the entrance to an ancient mineshaft, and the two former prisoners are there, waiting.

Gren climbs on with Claudia, because having two fully armored large warriors on one horse is just _asking_ to kill the poor animal, and Soren ends up getting the elf. “So,” he says, just to start the conversation as they head off towards the lodge. “What’s your name?”

The elf laughs, just very slightly. “I am already dead,” he says.

“Okay, yeah, sure, but dead people have _names_ , don’t they?”

“I suppose you’re right,” he says, his one good arm slung around Soren’s waist, holding on tight. “My name is Runaan.”

“Well,” Soren says with a shrug. “Dead or not, it’s nice to meet you. Can’t say I know too many dead elves…”

“Can’t say I know too many living humans.”

“Yeah, okay, you can’t talk like that or this is gonna get _real_ weird, real fast.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks so much for reading! i'll probably end up adjusting tags once ao3 has the tdp tags figured out... anyway, you can find me at chadsuke on tumblr, where i take drabble prompts! hope you liked it!


	2. Chapter 2

It’s kinda weird, travelling with an elf – Gren’s cool, Soren worked with him like… one time, but he’s cool either way and it turns out he was ACTUALLY following the right person so like whatever – but Runaan doesn’t really say anything and so Soren doesn’t really say anything, either.

Besides, they get to the lodge fairly fast, don’t even need to stop (yay!), and then they can put the dogs to tracking.

Soren makes Runaan and Gren get down from the horses while he and Claudia are down, because nobody wants them to run off with them, only to find that... the dogs don’t know where they’re going. Great. That’s. Great. “How’re we going to find the princes _now?_ ” Soren exclaims, and Runaan rolls his eyes, staggering over to a tree by the riverbank.

“They took the river,” Gren says, offering up advice. “It only goes one way. Follow it down on both sides until the dogs find the scent, and we can follow them from there.” Runaan, meanwhile, seems weirdly interested in something on the tree, but Soren can’t see what it is because his body’s in the way. Probably nothing.

Soren and Claudia exchange glances. “I… guess that could work,” she says slowly. “It’s worth a try.”

He shrugs. “You take the other side with Gren and I do this one with Runaan?” Soren still doesn’t know if he can trust either of them right now, but he’s pretty sure between Gren and Runaan Claudia can hold her own against Gren better. Gren probably PROBABLY won’t try to kill her and also Runaan is a bloodthirsty elven assassin. So.

They set off on either side, Runaan leaning heavily on the horse for support. “So,” Soren says, because silence is awkward and he was REALLY feeling that silence on the horse earlier, and now it’s awkward just walking with them and the horse and the dog. “So. My name’s Soren, so you know. And over there is my sister Claudia, and Gren’s the guy.”

Wait. Do Moonshadow elves even DO the ‘dude’ and ‘girl’ thing like humans? He thought Runaan was a dude, but maybe not… “Claudia’s the one with the black hair. The girl. Do you have girls?”

Runaan stares at him like how his Dad does sometimes when it takes him a second to respond, and sure enough, it takes Runaan a little bit to say something back as well. “…Yes,” he says, finally. “We have girls.”

“Oh. Cool.”

They walk in silence for a little bit more – yaaaaaaaaay – which is really. Really fun! And not awkward at all! Hahahaha what do you even talk to a crazy bloodthirsty elven assassin about, anyway. The weather?

Soren is honestly, genuinely starting to gear up to talk about how sunny it is outside, because he can’t think of anything else to discuss with Runaan, when the elf glances sidelong at him. “Why did you save me?” he asks.

Oh, that works too! Soren’s the one holding the coins (because he had more spots to hide the bag in his armor, and it wasn’t suspicious if he jingled), and he reaches in the side of his armor, pulling apart the plates a little bit to pull out the bag of coins. “This is why,” he says, reaching inside and pulling out a coin, which he offers to Runaan. “This is kiiiinda evil and we didn’t want Dad to do this to you, too.”

The elf eyes him very, very warily, but after a clearly painful shift of his body so he can take the coin in his non-dark-purple hand, he stares at it. Deep, deep horror etches into his face. “Are… they all…?”

Soren nods, holding up the bag. “Yep,” he says. “Got the other two in here.”

A strange expression crosses Runaan’s face, one that Soren can’t quite decipher. “Two…” Runaan makes a lunge for the bag, but he’s weak, slow, and it’s so very easy for Soren to nimbly dodge out of his way. “Give me those!” Runaan growls, the most _life_ he’s shown thus far, but like, no way.

Soren shakes his head. “Tsk, tsk, no way! This is cause I don’t trust you. Claudia called it, uh, cola-tera.” Yeah, that was definitely it, and he nods to emphasize his point. “So you know we have your friends and stuff and so you can’t double cross us or they’ll never get free.”

Feels kinda dick-ish, but Soren guesses that’s the point.

Runaan scowls fiercely. “Let me _see_ them,” and okay, Soren guesses that’s a different question altogether than actually taking them. He guesses that if Claudia were stuck in a coin, even if he couldn’t HAVE her, he’d want to see if she was okay in there. (And then she’d get out in like, two seconds flat because she’s Claudia and she does freaky gross magic stuff like every five minutes. So actually she’d get out in five minutes flat. That’s a difference.)

So he dumps the bag out on his palm, holding the coins up so that Runaan can see the elves, but is on the ready to draw them back if the elf seems like he’s going for them. He stares over them, stares at the frightened faces. “Callisto…” he murmurs, and almost reaches for them, but Soren yanks his hand back, stuffs the two coins back in the sack, and shoves the sack back in his armor.

“You can keep that one,” he says, nodding at the coin in Runaan’s hand, since he’s pretty sure he’s not gonna get THAT elf back any time soon (and maybe he shouldn’t have given it to him but. Uh. He hadn’t REALLY been thinking about that when he handed it over), and Soren’s about to ask about ‘Callisto’, because is that one of the elves in the coins? Ooooh, is that his _girlfriend?_ When-

“Hey, guys!” Claudia yells from the other side of the river. “Last one down the side of the waterfall’s a rotten egg!” And then she takes off in a sprint, headed down the rocks with her dog at her heel, and Soren’s face sets in determination.

Oh, it’s SOOOOO on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> people asked for more so???? here you go i guess??? i have no planned update schedule whatsoever, or even any idea of how long this fic will be, i'm just sorta. going. when people request more of me.
> 
> anyway, you can catch me at chadsuke on tumblr, as per usual, where i take drabble requests! thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Gren’s decision was a smart one – after they head past the waterfall and down for a bit more, the dog on Claudia’s side picks up the scent. Runaan _probably_ can’t swim it and Soren thinks his armor would make him drop like a rock and he doesn’t really feel like taking it all off and putting it all back on again so they backtrack up the slopes to the bridge and then cross over to rejoin Claudia and Gren.

Claudia grins at him. “I win!”

Soren frowns. “What did you win? Whatever it was, _I_ won.”

She laughs. “My dog found the trail _and_ I’m here faster! I win!”

He doesn’t really know how to respond to that without admitting that, okay, she really did win, so he huffs and pushes past her to get on his horse.

They follow the dogs, as darkness grows around them, for not very long until they hit a small clearing – and right in the middle are two very hard loaves of bread that the dogs immediately swarm until they realize they can’t actually bite into them.

Gren picks one up and his gaze hardens a little. “We gave the boys these before they were captured and left the lodge,” he says. And oh, Soren’s never actually heard the story about all that. “That elf…”

Runaan’s eyes narrow and Claudia and Soren exchange Sibling Looks before Claudia takes it on herself to field that one and explain that hey, actually, the princes and the elf are working together! because Soren really, really doesn’t want to think about the utter nonsense of it. Working with an elf? Like, why on EARTH would you ever do-

…Oh. Right. That’s what he’s doing right now. Hmm.

The elf in question is glaring fiercely at Gren as he describes what happened. “We are not _monsters!_ ” he growls, lunging forward until they’re inches away, but only barely managing to stay on his feet. “We do not drink blood, either, especially that of _children!_ ”

Gren holds his own, and glares right back. “Then what did that elf say that would make them think that?”

“They were lying, human! Rayla would _never_ -“ He draws back upon realizing he’s said her name, and turns his head. “Your human princes were lying. To get away, most likely.”

Rayla, huh? Now Soren knows TWO mysterious names. Rayla and Callisto! Well. Actually, he guesses Rayla isn’t too mysterious. That’s the elf with the two idiot princes. Callisto’s still a mystery, though.

Gren opens his mouth to retort and Soren decides to be the Mature And Wise One. “Hey, hey, no fighting. Who knows or cares why the princes said what they said – they’re idiots. We know this.” Claudia is nodding wisely in agreement but both Runaan and Gren give him a look that he doesn’t quite understand but it’s the same look from both faces.

What?

“You’re right,” Gren says, shaking his head, though it looks like it physically pains him to say it. “My apologies, Runaan, correct?”

Runaan says nothing, and simply stumbles away to sit down at the base of a nearby tree. He looks exhausted. Hungry. Probably in a lot of pain. Actually maybe that’s everyone right now except for the pain part.

“Yeah, his name is Runaan,” Soren tells Gren, because it seems like Runaan won’t, and he gets a huff of displeasure from the elf for that. Geeze, sorry!

Claudia seems to be on the same thinking zone as him – sibling power! – and eyes the elf with concern. “Maybe we should stop for the night,” she suggests, and both of the human guys nod in agreement. Runaan says nothing. “I’ll take third watch, if that’s cool?”

Soren shrugs. “I can take second,” he says, which is kinda the worst one but he doesn’t mind just chilling in the middle of the night by himself, taking in the fresh air, looking up at the stars.

“Are you sure?” Gren asks. “You can have first if you want.”

“Nah. I like second.”

None of them even breathe a word about the possibility of Runaan taking a shift.

* * *

Soren passes out jelly tarts that he had packed in his bag – Gren takes them with thanks, Claudia only takes his few precious raspberry ones, and Runaan refuses to take them at all so Soren just dumps a bunch in his lap and walks away – and they all settle down for the night, spreading out mats and stuff like that and starting a fire.

They’re not worried about people or animals or stuff coming to attack them, after all. They’re more worried about Runaan trying to murder the shit out of them in their sleep. (Though, honestly? Soren’s pretty sure the elf doesn’t have the energy. It’s more a ‘just in case’ sort of thing. Especially since they’ve got the elf coins!)

He’s a liiiittle uneasy about Gren taking a watch, but he does at least trust Gren not to like, kill them or anything AND they’re on the same side now so it should be cool, right?

When Gren shakes him awake, hours later, everything’s cool. “It’s quiet,” he says. “Haven’t really heard anything, and the other two are fast asleep.”

“Cool cool,” Soren says, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He waves Gren off. “Get some sleep,” he says, and the redhead gives him a smile and heads for his mat.

Soren gets up and stretches a few times to get his blood pumping, muscles working, all parts of him awake and he even jogs in place a few times just to make sure. By the time he’s done with his Second Nightwatch Exercise Routine Gren is completely passed out on his mat next to the fire. Claudia is, too, snoring lightly because she ALWAYS snores. Runaan is a bit away, curled up underneath the roots of the trees and from his fitful, jerky movements he’s asleep and probably in the depths of a nightmare.

He considers waking him up for like .2 seconds before realizing that’s probably a bad idea.

Instead, Soren grabs a few twigs and leaves and all that good stuff to feed to the fire to stoke it up a little bit more cause it gets COLD at night time, and then turns away from his companions to go look up at the stars.

Mom showed him pictures in these stars, pictures she called _constellations_ (that’s one word he WON’T forget), and he likes to look up at them and see how many he can pick out.

He’s not sure how long he does this, but after a bit, he hears a noise behind him. “Claudia,” he whispers, automatically turning. “It’s not time for your shift yet, go back-“

There’s a blade against his throat, and Soren swallows sharply as he looks up into the very, very angry elven face above him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, folks! thank you so much for your support - now we're getting into some real fun plot shenanigans, haha. did you think it was just gonna be eezy breezy bonding funtimes til they hit the princes? nope!
> 
> i'm not sure when i'm going to update this again, since i've got an AU i'm working on for raydia week that i want to finish before i do another chapter of this! so we'll see how long that takes me. since raydia week is this month, i'll probably write another chap by halloween-ish at the latest.
> 
> as always, you can find me on chadsuke on tumblr, where i take drabble prompts! thanks so much!


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